The authoritative public forum
  for Metal Finishing since 1989
  

  -----

Environmental aspects of electrolytic zinc plating

I need to write a paper on the environmental aspects of electrolytic zink^^zink plating... Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a lot of information about that on the internet (not even on the EPA homepage!), does anybody know a good source on the web (or any books on that topic)? Thanks in advance....

Sladjan Simic
- Long Beach, California, USA
2000

---

2000

I typed 'zinc electroplating environmental' at www.google.com and immediately was virtually drowned in an endless ocean of those silly reports about "environmental accounting" that have made so many plating shops poor and so many "non-profits" rich .

But yes, zinc plating is an environmental marvel, a sustainability miracle offering cathodic protection to steel so that by applying an ounce or two to a ton of steel it can last 10, 20, sometimes 75 years instead of requiring re-mining, re-transporting, re-smelting, re-transporting, re-fabricating, re-packaging, and re-landfilling every 2 or 3 years. I would certainly expect your professor to be singing the praises of zinc plating in your environmental course. Predictably, the U.S. EPA made the mom & pop shops that offer plating their very first target for categorical standards rather than the big-money mining, transporting, and smelting interests :-)
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

Oooops,.... thanks,... damn english spelling no wonder I couldn't find anything! Thanks...

Sladjan
- Long Beach, California
2000

To narrow your search look for; cyanide plating, low cyanide, acid, neutral zinc plating.

I think cyanide is old hat, but you should get some distance out of explaining why.

Also zinc plating is often chromated with Chromium VI, which is simple and effective but not environmentally friendly. Ian

Ian Brooke
university - Glasgow, Scotland
2000